{"id":11245,"date":"2023-10-10T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=11245"},"modified":"2023-10-11T07:33:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T23:33:23","slug":"response-to-the-call-to-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2023\/10\/10\/response-to-the-call-to-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to the Call to Follow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke 5:27-32 27<\/sup>And after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d 28<\/sup>And leaving everything, he rose and began following him.\u00a0<\/span>29<\/sup>And Levi made a great feast for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the meal with them.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The next story builds the intensity of conflict that emerged in the last story when the paralytic was healed. Luke retells two different responses to Jesus in an implied comparison. The first story is one of reception and discipleship. Tax collectors like Levi sat along key travel routes in booths where they collected tolls as people passed. It is possible that he had heard about Jesus from those who passed by since word about Jesus’ healing power had spread all over Galilee. Tax collectors were viewed negatively and categorized with sinners (verse 30). In the eyes of the Jewish elite, Jesus’ association with a tax collector like Levi was just as bad as telling a sinner he was forgiven. In the list of twelve apostles, the name Matthew is given. Only in the Gospel of Matthew is Levi also connected to the name Matthew. Levi likely had two names, one Jewish (Levi) and the other Greek (Matthew).<\/p>\n

Jesus’ invitation to Levi was simple. Jesus need not say anything more to people, yet they struggle to accept the same invitation. The phrase follow me<\/em> is often used in Luke (5:11; 9:23, 49, 57, 59, 61; 18:22, 28) and is the key idea of discipleship and calls for total commitment to Jesus as the Master, Lord, and Savior.<\/p>\n

Levi’s response to this invitation is the model of discipleship: he left everything and followed. His old life was gone. The verb tense of began following<\/em>\u00a0is imperfect, which indicates ongoing action. The particular use of this tense here could be inceptive imperfect, meaning Levi began to follow Jesus and continued on from that point onwards.\u00a0He, like Peter, James, and John, saw something promising and powerful in Jesus. There is no hint how much Levi knew about Jesus at this point, but that does not matter in the story. The key thought is that he heard the call and followed. He did not pack up his booth for the day knowing he would be back the next day. He did not dawdle on the line between the old and new but made a first commitment to move forward in faith.<\/p>\n

Levi demonstrated his decision to follow Jesus by giving a great feast in honor of Jesus. He acted on his new faith. The news was too good to keep to himself. In his sincerity and excitement, he invited many other tax collectors to come. To have a great feast like this and to invite a large crowd imply that Levi had money and influence. His wealth, however much or little it was, was now secondary to knowing Jesus. Jesus became the number one priority in his life. When we hear the call of Jesus, will we lay our lives before him to be used as he desires? Levi’s testimony of new faith likely impacted all his friends. They may have asked the reason for the great banquet when there was no holiday, birthday, wedding, or anniversary. In today’s terms, this was like a great backyard barbecue that invited the whole neighborhood. New life had come to Levi, and he wanted everyone to know.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 5:27-32 27And after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d 28And leaving everything, he rose and began following him.\u00a029And Levi made a great feast for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11266,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11245\/revisions\/11266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}